Crois. There they had wine and cards, and presently Castlewood and Mohun became involved in an altercation over the snuffing of a candle. They resolved to fight. A half dozen of chairs were now called, and the six gentlemen stepping into them the word was privately given to the chairmen to go to Leicester Field, where the gentlemen were set down opposite the 'Standard Tav ern.' It was midnight, and the town was abed by this time, and only a few lights in the windows of the houses; but the light was bright enough for the unhappy purpose which the disputants came about; and so all six entered into that fated square, the chair men standing without the railing and keep ing the gate, lest any persons should disturb the meeting. All that happened there hath been matter of public notoriety, and is recorded, for warning to lawless men, in the annals of our country. After being engaged for not more than a couple of minutes . . . . a cry from the chairmen with out .... announced that some catas trophe had happened, which caused Esmond to drop his sword and look round, at which moment his enemy wounded him in the right hand. But the young man did not heed this hurt much, and ran up to the place where he saw his dear master was clown." The duel and its fatal termination, con tinues Thackeray's account, caused the greatest excitement in the town. "The three gentlemen in Newgate were almost as crowded as the bishops in the Tower, or a highwayman before execution. . . . Nor was the real cause of the fatal quarrel known, so closely had my lord and the two other persons who knew it kept the secret, but every one imagined that the origin of the
meeting was a gambling dispute. Except fresh air, the prisoners had, upon payment, most things they could desire. Interest was made that they should not mix with the vulgar convicts, whose ribald choruses and loud laughter and curses could be heard from their own part of the prison, where they and the miserable debtors were confined pellmell." Then follows an account of the trials. "Of the two lords engaged in that sad matter, the second, my lord the Earl of War wick and Holland, who had been engaged with Colonel Yvcstbury and wounded by him, was found not guilty by his peers, be fore whom he was tried (under the présidence of the lord steward. Lord Somers), and the principal, the Lord Mohun, being found guilty of the manslaughter (which, indeed, was forced upon him, and of which he re pented most sincerely), pleaded his clergy, and so was discharged. . . . The lords being tried then before their peers at West minster, according to their privilege, being brought from the Tower with state proces sions and barges, and accompanied by lieu tenants and axe men, the commoners en gaged in that melancholy affray took their trial at Newgate, as became them; and, being all found guilty, pleaded likewise their benefit of clergy." Lord Mohun finally came to an untimely end, like his father, in a duel. The challenge in this instance came from his opponent, the Duke of Hamilton. It was actually a fight to the death. Lord Mohun, whose body was literally hacked to pieces, is said to have dealt the Duke a mortal wound with a short ened sword as the Duke bent over his pros trate form.
